Asus unveils the Padfone, our hearts stop for a few minutes

After the announcement of two new tablets, Asus decided let the cat out of the bag and introduce the Asus Padfone, which was introduced by them last year. It’s the first device to feature a phone/tablet hybrid form factor. We reported that Asus would be launching it at MWC, and here it is. Let’s start with the smartphone itself, which comes with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display, Snapdragon’s new dual-core S4 chip along with an Adreno 225 GPU, Ice Cream Sandwich, an 8MP rear camera with an LED flash and f/2.2, a VGA front-facing camera, and decently-sized 1520mAh battery. It will be available from 16 to 64GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD).

Now, the optional 9.2mm thick Padfone tablet will, according to Asus, increase the battery life nine-fold. It comes with a stylus, which doubles as a Bluetooth headset for receiving calls, which we thought was pretty awesome. The tablet can also dock into a keyboard, much like the Asus Transformer line. Asus plans to market and sell several accessories that extend the usability of the Padfone into infinity and beyond.

Asus announced that the Padfone will ship in April, but was mum on pricing for the devices and accessories. More on this as it develops. So, are you looking forward to the Padfone? How much do you think Asus will charge for a phone that docks into a tablet, that docks into a keyboard? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

I don’t see any reason for this to be device-specific. Why can’t any phone do this with any tablet via bluetooth, wifi or even “beam”?

Trebor Rude

That would require more hardware in the tablet. Right now, it’s only got a screen, a battery, and a few contacts for communicating with the phone. Using a wireless connection to the phone would require radios and the hardware to control them. That would drive up the price of the tablet and reduce its battery life. A wireless connection would also prevent the tablet from using its battery to extend the battery life of the phone.

james_bell

Yeah, but the upside would be you could use the tablet display for *any phone*. I think this is all just a half-step anyway, we will be doing serious computing with our phones’ resources soon enough, see Ubuntu on Android.

Trebor Rude

I totally want one of these, as long as it supports US GSM bands. LTE would be preferable, but I’d settle for 3G.

Barryp3403

The article asks “How much do you think Asus will charge for a phone that docks into a tablet, that docks into a keyboard?”. The real question is how much money you will save by having only one data plan for your phone and tablet and how much time you will save by not having to sync two devices.